Jason Chen: You guys all see the last minute rumors? 7:05 am ON Sep 9 2008
B. Lam: Good morning. Chen and I had a sleep over. We're eating shakes and Hong Kong milk tea. Just thought I'd tell you that. Wait, is this my Twitter window? 7:13 am ON Sep 9 2008
B. Lam: testes testes 1,2,3
Jason Chen: The line is surprisingly short for T-minus 2 hours or so to an Apple event. Smaller arena = smaller audience = not as many people. Still see the same old faces though.
B. Lam: Testing testing la la la. 8:20 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: It's cold and dreary, even for SF standards. It's as if Zeus already knows that the announcements are going to be disappointing. Suck it Zeus. 8:35 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: Oh and please post your comments here. Go go!
Jason Chen:
Jason Chen: We are such dorks. 8:42 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: We're inside the cordoned-off area, where we're again lining up to go inside. 70 minutes left. I'm hungry. 8:49 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: Oh yeah and thanks to Brian for letting me sleep and drool on his couch last night. Much better than trying to drive in here from Fremont at 6 AM.
Jason Chen: Oh, and post your obligatory "what do you expect to see today" over in the comments. 8:54 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: 9:04 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: Is it me, or are the people in line slightly better looking than usual? Here's to you, guy who looks like that guy on Season 4 of Buffy, who Buffy dated and then killed (?) or was cut from the show. 9:09 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: Note to Jesus: stop sending me stories of your European conquests when I am trying to type here.
Jason Chen: Seriously though, where is John Mayer? Is John Mayer here? I really want to see John Mayer here. I'm going to be inconsolable if he doesn't show. 9:17 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: I wonder how Steve Jobs prepares for these things. Rehearsing? Making an underling rehearse for him? Staying up all night watching random collegehumor videos? Ironing his jeans? Ironing his underwear? Ironing his skin? Eating three bags of Doritos? Trying on pants suits? Shadow boxing? Re-installing Office 2008? Renewing his subscription to Field & Stream? Baking a cake? Baking an erotic cake? Shooting silver nano-particles into his bloodstream? Yelling at his neighbors? Driving to 7-11 in a riding lawnmower? Punching a dog in the face? Punching a baby in the face? Punching a baby dog in the face? 9:26 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen:
Jason Chen: From right to left, guys who are decreasingly happy that their picture is being taken by a little Chinese guy. 9:31 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: Has anybody else noticed that Fake Steve Jobs looks JUST LIKE Adam Frucci + 30 years? 9:32 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: Guy in foreground: Mark McClusky from Wired. Guy in background: unidentified guy practicing his O-face for the event.
Jason Chen: Right: Adrian Covert concentrating intently on something or other. Left: Me, losing my hair in real time.
Jason Chen: I think it's time. Back in a bit.
Jason Chen: False alarm. Everyone is just clumping at the entrance. Some jerks next to me are making fun of Palm OS. 9:38 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: We're inside. Prime location. Right in the middle.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: The music is definitely more "rock" than last time. No one's throwing up the horns yet, as far as I know. 9:49 am ON Sep 9 2008
B. Lam: Nikon rig is a GO. Rolling stones are playing, Hendrix was playing - start up music's a lot more…rock-y.
B. Lam: Without fail, every apple liveblog triggers a urinary response of great urgency to those who attend. So I hear.
Jason Chen: If someone handed me a plastic guitar, I could totally four-and-a-half star this song in Rock Band. 9:54 am ON Sep 9 2008
B. Lam:
Liveblog nerds at the ready.
Jason Chen: If Jesus Diaz Blanco were here, all the females in attendance wouldn't just be immediately impregnated, they would be immediately in their second trimester. That's how fertile this man is. I, on the other hand, have just made all of them sterile. Sorry ladies.
Jason Chen: Two black iMacs are on stage, as they often are. Looks like there's going to be a software portion of this show. Some lady is filming me with a huge ass camera. Hey lady, I see you.
Jason Chen: Lights are dimming! SAX SOLO ALMOST DONE!
Jason Chen: Steve Jobs is strolling out on stage; skinny, but energetic. 10:00 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: Music is going to be the main topic today. First up is iTunes.
Jason Chen: The store has 8.5 million songs, 125k podcasts, 30k episodes of TV shows, 2.6k Hollywood movies and 3k applications for iPhone and iPod touch. The crowd claps, inexplicably. Do these people have stock?
Jason Chen: iTunes is now the #1 music distributor in any format, ahead of Wal-Mart and Best Buy.
B. Lam:
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: Today they're adding HD TV Shows. $2.99 for HD shows, $1.99 for regular SD shows. You can watch them on Apple TV and your computer.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: NBC is coming back to iTunes! Monk, The Office, Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock, Heroes and some more.
Jason Chen: All these shows will be in high def as well as standard def.
Jason Chen: Also coming today: iTunes 8!
Jason Chen: What's new? Accessibility (voice over), New Browsing, Genius (like the rumors said). 10:05 am ON Sep 9 2008
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: in iTunes 8, you can now browse albums by albums cover, and toggle Albums, Artists, Genres and Composers in the tabs at the top. Ex: for any artist, you can scan through all their albums if you scrub over their icon, just like in iPhoto.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: Genius: "Automatically make playlists from songs in your library that go great together - with just one click." Essentially the rumor that we had before, with iTunes automatically making a playlist based on what music you already listen to.
Jason Chen: The Genius sidebar also makes recommendations from the iTunes store, which shows you songs from the store (some from other artists) that "go great" with your current songs.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: Genius information gets sent up to the cloud, to iTunes, to feed them your musical tastes. It's sent anonymously, plus it's opt-in. Nobody will link you with your crappy taste in music.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: The combined info of you and other iTunes users will combine and be analyzed by Apple, and generate results to tailor your music library every week.
Jason Chen: Now a demo of browsing. Jobs is choosing an Aretha song—Respect, natch—and then going over to browsing albums by Genres and Composer. This also works for movies and TV shows. 10:10 am ON Sep 9 2008
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: JOHN MAYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!`1`1`
Jason Chen: OMFG JOHN MAYER!!!!!! HE IS PLAYING JOHN MAYER GRAVITY OMG ALJA;SLDKFJALS;DJFKLAS;JDFKL;ASDFJKL;SADFJ
B. Lam:
Journalists groan at the mention of JM.
Jason Chen: Sorry. Ahem. Jobs was demonstrating the Genius feature. Pick a song, make a Genius playlist out of it, then look at all the songs that are just like it in that playlist. It's Pandora, essentially.
Jason Chen: I think Jobs played that John Mayer just for us.
Jason Chen: iTunes 8 is available today at Apple.com.
Jason Chen: Now we're moving on to the iPod. In July, the iPod has a 73.4% marketshare in the US.
Jason Chen: Sandisk has 8.6%, Microsoft has 2.6%, and "Other" is 15.4%. Not too bad, Microsoft.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: Steve Jobs talks about third-party manufacturers "announcing products before we even want them to." "It's not funny." 10:15 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: iPod Classic: currently, it's being offered in thin and thick: 80GB and 160GB. The 80GB is being upgraded to 120GB, and the 160GB is being discontinued. Same as the Zune.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: The 120GB can fit 30,000 songs. Moving on!
Jason Chen: The iPod nano is next. They're going through the generations of iPod nano, saying that the 2nd gen (tall and silver) was much beloved. But the third had video.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: The new nano: it's exactly what we've seen. Skinny, rounded, and a lot like the 2nd gen Nanos. Portrait aspect ratio plus the exact same resolution display. It's oval, and just as tall as the iPod Nano 2G.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: The display takes up almost exactly half the front. Jobs is holding it up to the camera for a closeup. He's got a nice looking wedding ring too.
Jason Chen: The front is curved glass, it's the "thinnest iPod ever", has an enhanced user interface plus an Accelerometer. The body is curved aluminum. You can create Genius playlists directly on the nano.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: The new UI has longer menus, icons next to songs and full sized album art. Photos and video can be displayed in landscape mode. If you push and hold the center button, you get a pop-up menu with Genius, add to on-the-go, browse album and browse artist. Similar to the scheme you have in the iPod Touch/iPhone now.
Jason Chen: The iPod nano even has a voice recording feature when it detects a microphone attached.
B. Lam: 10:20 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: While the music is playing, he can rotate the nano sideways to get coverflow mode (like the Touch and iPhone). Apple definitely took a lot of design elements from the two touchscreen devices to make this.
Jason Chen: New feature! Shake to shuffle. Shake your iPod and it starts shuffling.
Jason Chen: JOHN MAYER AGAIN OMG SHUFFLE!!!!!
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: Now photo viewing. Thumb through photos with the clickwheel, switch to landscape then back to portrait.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: Battery life: 24 hours music, 4 hours video. Jobs reiterates that it's the thinnest iPod ever.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: He's now talking about the environmental concerns that Apple's thinking about. These new nanos are using arsenic-free glass, BFR-free, mercury free, PVC-free and highly recyclable. Jobs says it's the "cleanest" most "toxic free" iPods they've ever made. 10:25 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: The nanos now come in a whole crapload of colors. Black, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, violet BUT NO WHITE.
Jason Chen: $149 for the 8GB model, $199 for the 16GB model.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: 8GB should be in stock today, 16GB early next week at the latest (probably this weekend).
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: They're also announcing accessories including headphones and armbands. The headphone, actually, has an in-band control feature to have volume control, playback control (next, prev, play pause) from the button. There's also a microphone on the back that works with the voice recording app. These will be $29 next month.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: Apple's also announcing a new in-ear headphones, with two drivers each (woofer + tweeter) and will be $79. Jobs says "they finally got it right this time", which is good because the old in-ear ones kind of suck.
Jason Chen: New iPod nano ad coming up. All the different nano colors flying on screen to arrange the rainbow lineup you saw earlier. Sort of like the New Line movie studio logo, if you remember how that looks.
B. Lam: 10:30 am ON Sep 9 2008
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: The iPod Touch is also being redesigned. The Touch now is thinner, with a contoured steel design. What's the same? a 3.5-inch display, accelerometer, 802.11b/g and the app store. What's different? An integrated volume control on the side, a speaker, and Genius playlist creation.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: There's Nike+ iPod! Built in to the iPod Touch. BUILT IN to the iPod. The receiver is built-in to the iPod Touch, so no receiver necessary.
Jason Chen: It's unclear whether the Nike+ hardware is only in the new ones or if the old Touch or the iPhones can do this. Will look out for any info on this.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: Now Jobs is demoing the Genius playlist creation directly on the iPod Touch. Pretty much what you'd expect, and the playlist will remain on your iPod for as long as you want.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: As for the App Store, people have downloaded 100 million apps in 60 days. Not sure how many of these are paid and how many are free.
Jason Chen: The wireless App Store is available in 62 countries as of now.
Jason Chen: The Genius button is at the top of the now playlist list, under the scrubber where you can fast forward through the song. Click that and you can make a Genius playlist. 10:35 am ON Sep 9 2008
B. Lam:
B. Lam: Is Iron man out yet?
Jason Chen: He's showing Iron Man, and saying that the screen is great to watch movies on. Adrian says David Lynch would disagree.
Jason Chen: Jobs is now inviting Phil Schiller on stage to demonstrate some unreleased games on the iPod Touch.
Jason Chen: First up Spore Origins, which we've seen before. Spore, which actually isn't all that much fun. Think flow, on the PS3, but with a really disgusting microbe as your guy.
Jason Chen: Brian says: "That's what herpes looks like. Gonorrhea maybe." I defer to his expertise.
Jason Chen: Someone is laughing crazily in the background. He must be watching a different keynote than we are.
Jason Chen: Schiller says: "the graphics are incredible, and the game play is just…" Yeah, he really likes it. 10:40 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: Now Gameloft's Real Soccer 2009. Shipping today. He's picking US vs. Italy, customizing his uniforms and picking a stadium. Graphics are PS1-level 3D, but the 2D stuff looks nice.
B. Lam:
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: The game overlays a D-Pad and A/B buttons on screen, so your fat fingers will be all over the bottom of the screen, blocking part of the display.
Jason Chen: Now Need For Speed: Undercover. Customize your car, deliver a package across town. Not too bad graphics, actually, in terms of 3D. No Maggie Q like on the console version though.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: Graphics are nice, but the game itself is kind of buggy right now. Comes November to iPhone and iPod Touch.
Jason Chen: The iPod Touch also works with the new headphones previously announced. Battery life is 36 hours for music, 6 for video.
Jason Chen: The environmental checklist is the same as the nano (scroll down to check it out). 10:45 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: "This is the funnest iPod ever." – Steve Jobs
Jason Chen: The 8GB is $229, 16GB is $299 and 32GB is $399. All available starting today. Here's an iPod Touch ad.
B. Lam:
Jason Chen: The ad focuses on games, which includes shaking, gestures and screen pressing. There's also music tacked on there at the end to show that it's still an iPod. "Funnest iPod ever" is the catchphrase used.
Jason Chen: The iPod Touch has software 2.1, which includes Nike+ and Genius playlists. First-gen iPod Touch owners get a free update from 2.0, but if you haven't, it's $9.95 to 2.1 from 1.x. Updates are available today.
B. Lam:
(Forgot to upload this earlier - this was the first slide Jobs came out to.)
Jason Chen: iPhone owners get a 2.1 software update that "fixes lots of bugs." Significantly improved battery life, fewer call drops, crashing problems, increased speed for iTunes backups and various other fixes.
Jason Chen: The iPhone update is free and will be available this Friday.
Jason Chen: Steve Jobs is kind of wrapping things up, saying that these are the best iPods and iTunes ever. 10:50 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: Jobs says that whenever there is a music event, he wants to remind the customers that they're music-oriented. Is it John Fucking Mayer???!
Jason Chen: #1 selling male artist in iTunes history. NOOO! Jack Johnson?!?!?
B. Lam: B. Lam:
Jason Chen: Yeah, Jack Johnson. I guess he's alright. Not too shabby, but we're still disappointed.
Jason Chen: Sorry for the lack of updates…I'm sobbing uncontrollably.
Jason Chen: 10:55 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: John Mayer, if you're reading this. Email me.
B. Lam: (How about this D300 - pretty nice shots for a sub $2k Nikon body.)
Jason Chen: The event's wrapping up, but you should head over to Gizmodo for the rest of the day to see our updates, hands ons and impressions.
Jason Chen: Jack Johnson's speaking now that his song is done. He says he's used to 20-something year old girls [not balding, overweight businessmen and media]. 11:00 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: JJ's firing up for a second song. Wee!
Jason Chen: Jack says he's picturing his buddies in front of their computers, watching him sing a love song to his wife. You're alright, Jack. You're alright.
B. Lam: This is definitely the most romantic liveblog I have ever done with Jason and Adrian.
Jason Chen: Nice work Jack. Standing ovation, so we can't see anything but a sea of jeans. 11:04 am ON Sep 9 2008
Jason Chen: It's over! Thanks for reading folks. Stay tuned for our hands-on coverage here. See ya! Jason Chen:
We've got iPod Touch and iPod Nano impressions over on the site. Hit up the links to get to them. 12:15 pm ON Sep 9 2008